The form for getting part of a registration fee back after cancelling. Massachusetts is unusually generous about this and almost nobody claims it: cancel within ten days of the effective date and the plate fee is refunded in full; cancel later and half the remaining fee comes back after a $15 administration charge, provided it happens before the first day of the seventh month.
Written against REV105 (REV105_1119, November 2019), issued under M.G.L. c.90 s.2.
The clock runs from the registration's effective date, not from the day you sold the car. A registration renewed in January and a car sold in September is outside the window whatever the cancellation receipt says - so the rebate is worth checking on a plate that was renewed recently and not worth chasing on one that was not.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank REV105 from the mass.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual REV105, rendered from the PDF the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles publishes and completed end to end: letterhead, every field, and the blocks at the foot.
Amber — you write it
Grey — not yours to fill
Numbered — explained below
The explanation block is doing the work here. Revenue Operations reviews every one of these by hand, and the difference between a paid claim and a refused one is usually whether the receipt that proves the cancellation date went in with it.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Check the dates first
Full refund inside ten days of the registration's effective date; half the balance less $15 up to the first day of the seventh month.
Watch out: The form prints a worked example - a $60.00 fee cancelled in time gives $22.50 back - which is the quickest way to see whether yours is worth the stamp.
2
You fill this in
Credential information
Tick Registration and write the plate number in the credential number box.
Watch out: The five boxes cover licences, citations and titles as well. Only one applies.
3
You fill this in
Owner or contact information
Name, telephone, email, and a mailing address for the cheque.
Watch out: Use an address that will still be yours in six weeks. Approved rebates are processed within four to six weeks.
4
You fill this in
Rebate request information
Where the transaction happened, the location name, the date, and why you are claiming.
Watch out: A cancellation after a sale is not an overpayment or a duplicate payment, so the reason to tick is Other and the explanation block is where it gets explained.
5
You fill this in
The explanation, with the receipt
A short account of the cancellation, and the Registration Cancellation Receipt attached.
Watch out: The instruction is that all requests require supporting documentation such as a receipt. Without the receipt there is nothing to date the claim from.
6
You fill this in
Sign and post it
Signature, printed name and date, to the Rebate Section at PO Box 55889 in Boston.
Watch out: Different PO box from the Title Division. The Registry runs several and a form in the wrong one comes back.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Instructions and the two rules
Full refund of registration plate fees, including any special plate fee, only if the registration is cancelled within ten days of the effective date. Partial refund of 50% of the remaining registration fee after a $15 administration fee if cancelled after the tenth day and before the first day of the seventh month following the effective date; special plate fees are not refunded.
Worked example
The form prints one: a registration effective 1 August 2014 with a $60.00 fee, plates returned before 1 March 2015, gives a rebate of $22.50 - sixty dollars less the fifteen dollar fee, halved.
Credential Information
Five tick boxes - licence or identification, registration, citation, title, other - and the credential number.
Owner or Contact Information
Last name, first, middle initial, telephone, email, corporation or business name, employer identification number, and a mailing address.
Rebate Request Information
Where the transaction happened from five options, the location name, the date of the transaction, why the rebate is being claimed from three options, and a block for the explanation.
Signature
Signature, printed name and date.
What gets this one rejected
•A claim with no supporting documentation. All requests require supporting documentation such as a receipt attached to the application.
•A claim for a special plate fee on a partial refund. Special plate fees are not refunded once the ten days have passed.
•A claim made after the first day of the seventh month following the registration's effective date.
•A claim for a transaction that is simply non-refundable. The instruction says that except as stated, in general RMV transactions are non-refundable.
•Expecting it quickly. Approved rebates are processed within four to six weeks, after review by Revenue Operations.
Every line here was read off REV105 (REV105_1119, November 2019) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
